.   Are you calling him a coward? Are you name calling to project your opinion?   The difference in him & Gillard is; people don't trust her or anything she utters, people have switched off her & that is political death for any politician.   Rudd will have to be asked back to save them, they will have ask him, but will they have the ticker ( your expression) to do so knowing they are facing electoral annihilation if they don't at least try to save themselves.   Personally I don't ever want to Rudd in a position of power ever again. The psycho, vengeful, disruptive, disdainful, rude, dysfunctional  label they put on him themselves should be enough  never allow him back.

am i calling him a coward ? in the political sphere yes i am. i know its really the fact that he's media managed to the point where its considered by his own minders as unsafe to let him loose on anything but a stage-managed platform. an open forum such as the PM faces willingly is where he he dare not go. . take some of the PM's press conferences .. the press gallery were given free rein to ask as many questions as they had on a topic (the AWU farce for one) and asked until they had no more questions. he doesn't and wont do that.. he and his spin team are far too afraid of the swing voters getting a good look at him.